David Henry Hwang — a 2003 Tony nominee for Best Book of a Musical for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song — will also pen the book for the stage version of Disney’s Tarzan.

David Henry Hwang

At the Tony nominees press reception, Hwang said that a reading will soon be held for the new Disney project, which is based on the acclaimed 1999 film. Said Hwang, “Phil Collins is writing some more songs, and Bob Crowley is designing and directing.”

In addition to Tarzan, Hwang is working on a new play about which he is keeping mum, and he has also written the libretto for an opera opening this month in Boston. “It’s at [American Repertory Theatre], and Philip Glass wrote the music. It’s called Sound of a Voice.Sound of a Voice was a play that I did at the Public in the early eighties, and Philip wrote a couple of one-act operas inspired by that play.”

David Henry Hwang was awarded the 1988 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and John Gassner awards for his Broadway debut, M. Butterfly, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama as well. His other plays include FOB (Obie Award) and Golden Child (Obie Award, Tony Award nomination), plays that, like M. Butterfly, explore the ideas of Asian cultural identity, history, illusion and reality.